I've spent a fair bit of time on JL, as it's one of the preferred carriers on my work travel contract (others being Air China or Delta, usually). I've also spent a lot of time on other carriers including CA (J), CZ (J), NZ (J), CX (J only), SQ (F and J), EK (F and J), Qantas (J), LA (J), BA (F and J), AF (J), KE (F and J), TG (F and J), UA (F and J) and many others.

I can say this: for my tastes, JL has the best catering of any carrier I've seen. It's consistently great, if not outstanding. I also believe they have some of the most disappointing lounge catering in terms of variety (so much curry for someone like me who doesn't eat beef), but in truth once on board they really have an excellent product. And it's only gotten better with the new suites.

Their lounges are generally not up to the standards of CX, EK or SQ. But everything else is ^